Broadcasters Face Off Against Programmers and Consumer Groups on Kidvid
Broadcasters seeking broad relaxation of children's TV rules found themselves at odds with programmers and consumer groups, in comments on the FCC's kidvid NPRM in docket 18-202 in time for Monday's deadline. Though almost all commenters agreed existing rules are outdated, nearly every broadcaster filing supported the FCC's proposed rule changes. “The existing children’s TV regulatory regime leads to less than optimal use of limited air time to the detriment of stations and their local audiences,” said NAB. House Communications Subcommittee Democrats are expected to note their concerns about the kidvid NPRM during a Thursday hearing on the state of the media marketplace (see 1809260054).
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Children's media organizations and others disagreed. “The FCC’s assumption that children’s television guidelines are no longer necessary because programming is available on other platforms is simply wrong,” filed the Benton Foundation, Center for a Digital Democracy and Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood. They said the agency “should not let broadcasters provide even less than the small amount educational children’s television programming they now provide.”
The existing rules are burdensome and are no longer needed with so many other platforms for programming aimed at kids, broadcasters said. Since the 1987-88 TV season, broadcast TV viewership ages 2-17 has fallen by 88 percent, said CBS, NBCUniversal, 21st Century Fox and Univision. The current rules and reporting obligations “unnecessarily consume administrative and financial resources, deprioritize local programming, and result in lost revenue,” said Nexstar. Nearly every broadcast commenter endorsed all FCC-proposed kidvid rule relaxations: loosening the definition of core programming, allowing multicasting alone to satisfy requirements, reducing reporting and relaxing scheduling rules. “Giving broadcasters greater scheduling flexibility will allow stations to better tailor their children’s programming to the needs of children in individual markets” said Block Communications. “The passage of time and evolution of technology and viewing habits have made those rules and policies obsolescent,” said Gray Television.
Consumer groups said arguments about offerings on other platforms and declining broadcast viewership don't take into account that lower income children don't have other options. “Many of the nation’s poorest families cannot afford broadband or cable television alternatives,” said the National Hispanic Media Coalition. “For families without the means to pay for streaming or other non-broadcast content these changes would significantly impact their access to quality children’s content,” said Common Sense Media. Kids' content on other platforms is often not up to the kidvid quality standards, said Benton, CDD and CCFC. Much youth-aimed programming online ”consists of program-length commercials and 'native' ads designed specifically to promote and sell toys, fast-food and other products,” the joint filing said.
Numerous broadcasters and MVPD entities American Cable Association and AT&T said reporting burdens should be reduced to a single annual public filing. AT&T suggested going further for MVPDs and requiring such reporting only in the event of a complaint. Loosening reporting requirements and processing guidelines “would be a clear step towards returning to the market failures that existed before” the current rules, when noneducational content was passed off as meeting the requirements, NHMC said.
The FCC should collect more data on child viewing habits before altering the rules, said several groups. “NHMC is particularly concerned about the Commission’s willingness to make sweeping changes without the requisite data collection and analysis." The Sesame Workshop, creators of Sesame Street, said the FCC and Congress should embark on a comprehensive process that would update the Children's Television Act with the goal of ensuring underserved children have access to quality content. The FCC's current proposals “do not yet pass muster,” the workshop said.
Most of the proposed changes don't affect public TV content such as Sesame Street, said America's Public Television Stations, PBS and CPB. They support an FCC proposal to relax rules requiring stations to put the “E/I” (educational and informative) symbol on the screen when such content is being aired.
E/I programmer Litton argued against proposals that would allow broadcasters to satisfy kidvid requirements with content aired only on multicast channels. Litton's shows' audience on multicast streams average less than 5 percent of its programming on station main channels, Litton said. Multicast channels also may not have the same definition or accessibility options as main channels, Litton said. “Allowing stations to satisfy their E/I obligations by moving programming to a multicast stream will destroy the economics of producing E/I programming, resulting in producers relying on reruns and stale programming."
Programming guides will let viewers find kidvid content on multicasts, Meredith said in meetings last week with Commissioners Brendan Carr, Jessica Rosenworcel and Mike O'Rielly. “There is a balance between public interest obligations and profitability,” said Meredith. “Flexibility in children’s advertising limits and different formats could provide the necessary flexibility for greater economic viability." NCTA called for relaxation of mandates for ads during kids shows and insertion of web addresses into children's content. The NPRM doesn't propose changes to ad rules.